Friday, August 13, 2010

Citroen Metropolis and Survolt due for production

Citroen is working hard on bring two of its most recent concept cars into production: the Metropolis premium saloon and the Survolt electric sports car.

Citroen’s effort at breaking into the European executive saloon market with the current C6 failed but Ploué said that Citroën must carry on and the Metropolis is the model that could do that. The Metropolis would take its place as Citroens flagship saloon and may be badged ‘DS9’.

“We cannot afford to let the likes of Audi, Mercedes and BMW forge into Citroën’s heartland supermini territory without fighting back and pushing into theirs. Selling large luxury cars in Europe is not easy at the moment, but I believe Citroën has a great deal more to bring to the market. A large, characterful DS flagship model — we could call it a DS9 to reference the original DS19 — could do great things for us”, Polué said.

In addition, Polué suggested that developing such a car for the Chinese market – which would measure over 5.4m – and badging it as a Citroën, would be a positive financially.

“It’s still our intention to put the Survolt into low-volume production, and we’re pursuing the idea of a one-make race series,” well-placed insiders confirmed.